New Arrival

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Blink

You see them at the breakfast table every day. You help cram the homework in their backpacks before they race out the door. You holler at them to pick up their stuff ... right now!

But you don't see the day-to-day changes. You don't realize that they've grown an inch in the past couple of months. You don't realize that one day, you don't have to yell at them to pick up their stuff ... well, maybe that one never happens.

I do think we are more apt to notice the differences from the outside looking in. It's when you see that 4-Her from across the county who seems to have grown a foot from last year's fair to this year's version. You see the junior high girl from just down the road who - seemingly overnight - is no longer a freckle-faced little girl but a makeup-wearing, hair-just-so young lady.

It's been that way with the milo crop, too. I have zipped by it on the way to and from the fair. Sure, it's been green over there in my peripheral vision. But sometime, when I wasn't looking, it grew a foot.

I took this photo of the milo on July 9.

Then on July 18, less than 10 days later, it had grown by leaps and bounds.

That's what a little bit of rain will do for you.

I know that some Kansas farmers got more rain than they needed at one time last week. My folks had 4.3 inches all at once in one location, and no less than 1.8 inches throughout their farm's fields. The Macksville farmers at the fair were talking about some fields flooding with their 3.5-plus inches of rain.

But, right here at home, we got just a half inch of moisture. And the milo took a deep drink and grew ... and grew some more.

The weatherman says it will be a week of temperatures hovering around the century mark. There's no rain in sight on the extended forecast. So the milo may change again with some heat stress - and not for the better this time.

You blink, and things change ... whether you're talking a milo crop or a child who is there at home one minute. And you turn around, and they are all grown up.

2 comments:

Milo looks just great! Hope the hot weather doesn't do too much damage. I assume this is the field on the south side of my quarter.

Sorry about your bread bowl. I remember making a Kelly Green dress suit for one of our boys when he was in high school. (colors were green and gold) I was so proud of the way it turned out. It was an unusual fabric. I had a couple of spots on it and had it cleaned the day before the big banquet. They shrunk it and completely ruined it. I know that feeling of "on, no! It can't be!" :)Mary